Out with the old: Detox

Handled properly, a cleanse can encourage healthy eating

Some people enter the new year with a promise to eliminate sugar, booze or dairy from their diet for a month.

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We call them cleanses now. Diet sounds so yesterday.

After pigging out for weeks, drinking more than at any other time of year and replacing exercise regimes with socializing, a cleanse that promises to flush out all that excess sounds like just the ticket.

But is it all it's cracked up to be or is it just a thinly veiled weight loss diet.

Generally speaking, cleanses have two parts -- elimination with herbal laxatives and fasting or restrictions to diet -- both of which can offer up the holy grail of weight loss. They can last up to 30 days or be done over a long weekend. They promise to energize you, (after a few days of headaches and lethargy). Better health is the promise, weight loss is a bonus, though many celebrities are up front about using them to lose weight.

Some people swear by them and if they do no harm, Dr. Eric Yoshida, head of gastroenterology at UBC has no problem with them. But Yoshida says the theories on which they are based, make no sense physiologically.

While there are many variations, the common thread is that a diet full of processed foods, sugar and fat is poorly digested and results in a buildup of fecal matter in the colon. This buildup allows the toxins in feces to be reabsorbed into the body causing all manner of health concerns including Crohn's disease, spastic colon, ileitis, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, and cancer of the colon or rectum. Regular cleansing rids the body of the toxins and prevents these conditions.

But Yoshida says this is all bunk. The body's systems just don't work the way the proponents of the cleanses claim they do. Once in the colon, nothing but water gets reabsorbed, he says. The liver detoxes our food very efficiently.

"The stuff that is in the colon doesn't get absorbed into your body. Systemically everything you eat is absorbed by the small bowel, it goes through your portal system, is filtered by your liver and then goes to the rest of the body." Only the waste goes to the colon, he says.

"There is no scientific basis for the claim that cleansing the colon with the use of purgatives (potent laxatives) is of any value as a detox," says Yoshida. Nor is there any scientific study that shows that purgatives decrease the incidence of cancer or other chronic health condition. Rapid elimination may reduce weight, but it is a slippery slope towards an eating disorder if used regularly.

Still, if a cleanse makes people feel better psychologically, Yoshida has few concerns about it. Moreover, the food guidelines of many cleanses - lots of organic vegetables and fruit, no sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine and often no meat or dairy - is very healthful, even if the theory that we can affect the body's PH level by eating 80 per cent alkaline foods is "totally out the window." The body maintains a very specific PH level and we have no control over that. But we will feel better with a better diet.

Haely Lindau, a nutritional consultant with an MA in nutritional science who works at Connect Health in Vancouver, says she really believes in the power of food and the ability of the body to heal itself. She says that many people do a cleanse when they feel depleted and lacking in energy. "That is the wrong time to do it," she says. "Certain cleanses may be too hard for them."

At Connect Health, they recommend eating foods that have the innate ability to support the organs and bio-chemical pathways to detox. They help clients to identify a diet that is right for them and urge them to adopt it permanently to help the body do what it does best. Bitter greens, broccoli, cabbage and cilantro are all good for the digestive system, she says, adding that Connect Health is hosting a workshop in January to help people develop personal detox programs.

Lindau says one benefit of cleanses is that people tend to be much more conscientious about the foods that they eat for at least few weeks afterwards and sometimes permanently.

"I think that this is very important because ideally we should always be supporting our natural detoxication systems and the closer that we can get to doing this on a day-to-day basis the better."

Some people enter the new year with a promise to eliminate sugar, booze or dairy from their diet for a month. This is a good strategy whether or not it is a cleanse, say Yoshida and Lindau. After all the over-indulgence of December, going without may help lose newly gained weight. It also effectively kills

the craving. "When you eat sugar, you get a high," says Lindau. "You want more and it creates a cycle. But if you cut out sugar for two weeks, that stops the craving. It's the same with refined flour."

Yoshida agrees and adds that table sugar is a significant cause of fatty liver disease, which puts people at risk for diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and gout. Because a sugar fast breaks the craving, it opens the door to a life of reduced sugar intake. That is a good thing.

So whether you call it a diet or a cleanse, if it changes your eating habits, drops your weight and makes you feel better, it's all good. Just choose your cleanse carefully and adjust the purgative dose so you are eliminating no more than three times a day, says Maelon Ryane, holistic nutritionist at Finlandia pharmacy. Any more and you aren't giving your body time to absorb nutrients from all that good food.

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